Minority language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a country.
In Europe and in some other parts of the world, like in Canada, minority languages are often defined by legislation and afforded some form of official support.
Other terms that may be applied to minority languages are minoritised language, marginalised language, lesser-used language, immigrant language, regional language, indigenous language, primitive language, the people's language or language of the people, creole language, condemned language, undesirable language, 'prohibited language', unpatriotic language or subversive language (as opposed to national language), spoken language (vernacular), "signed language", "concrete language", written language, reading language, language still remembered and dead language, etc...
Some minority languages are simultaneously also official languages, including the Irish language (Gaelic). Likewise, some national languages are minority languages, insofar as they are the national language of a stateless nation.
Controversy
Minority languages are occasionally marginalised within nations for a number of reasons. These include the small number of speakers, the decline in the number of speakers, and their occasional consideration as uncultured, primitive, or simple dialects when compared to the dominant language. They are also occasionally viewed as a threat, for example the rise of Celtic languages in the UK (Irish and Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Cornish) is viewed by some to be support for seperatism, thus as a threat to the political establishment. Immigrant minority langauges are often also seen as a threat and as indicative of the non-integration of these communities. Both of these perceived threats are based on the notion of the exclusion of the majority language speakers. Often this is added to by political systems by not providing support (such as education and policing) in these languages.
For example, in Brazil there are many minority languages. For example, Guaraní, an Amerindian language, Riograndenser Hunsrückisch and Italian or Talian. In other words, some of these languages are native to the region or spoken by the region's indigenous peoples, others are the so-called immigrant languages. However, there is this belief amongst some of the Brazilian population and in the minds of some Brazilian intellectual circles that only Portuguese is really spoken in the land... that any other languages are insignificant, that is if they indeed do exist.
Signed languages are often not recognized as true natural languages even though they are supported by extensive research. In the United States, for example, American Sign Language is the most used indigenous language yet almost the only indigenous language which lacks official government recognition.
